In This Life
by imprisonedONcallisto
Summary: Hinata's folding her laundry and Naruto hears someone singing. Not mention he gets caught be Neji and caught spying.


**While this is my first fic with this account, it is not my first fic ever to be posted. I have a shared account (Magdalan-Saiyan-Toa) where I write, edit, and post stories that were written by a group.**

"**In This Life" is an absolutely beautiful song. I highly recommend it to anyone. Go and listen to it when you are done reading.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters. Nor do I own "In This Life," it is by Delta Goodrem. If I did, I would be rich and could afford a lawyer to help me win the case. But I do not, so you all are lucky. **_**So**_** many terrible, terrible things would have happened.**

Narration

'Thought'

"Talk"

_**Singing/Music**_

* * *

**In This Life**

**by infidelityONcrank**

SHE LIKED THE SMELL of detergent. It had a calming effect. Somehow the scent of soap, citrus, flower, and baby powder mixed together created an aromatic treatment for stress.

Smiling to herself she folded the aromatic scented clothes into separate piles; pants, under shirts, over shirts, jackets, socks, underwear, and brassieres. The pants, shirts, jackets, and socks had all been thrown into the dryer and were warm on her cold hands. The underwear and the brassieres had been hanging to dry for all who came and did the laundry to see.

So, there she was in the laundry room, the only room in the house with a stubborn window that simply would not close. Yes, it was warming up in Kanoha village, but it was still nippy making the young woman wear her concealing jacket in the room. Around the Hyuuga estate, she would normally never wear it but since she was going to be in this room for a while, the jacket deemed itself necessary.

The dark-haired girl turned on the radio as she folded, singing quietly along with songs she knew. She smiled as another song she knew started to play.

_**I was nurtured  
**__**I was sheltered  
I was curious and young  
I was searching for that something  
Trying to find it on the run  
Oh and just when I stopped looking  
I saw just how far I'd come  
In this life  
In this life**_

_**You give me love  
You give me light  
Show me everything that's been happening  
I've opened up my eyes  
I'm following  
Three steps fight an honest fight  
Two hearts that can start a fire  
One love is all I need  
In this life**_

UZUMAKI NARUTO SHIVERED AS he trudged through the chilly weather, teeth chattering. He was trying to think of a plan to win the heart of his long-time crush, Haruno Sakura. But, alas, his poor starved body did not function well on an empty stomach.

'Maybe I'll stop at the Ichiraku Ramen Bar to warm myself up,' he thought hungrily.

His ears caught a soft voice singing. Normally, one would not hear such a soft voice but Naruto was not normal, he was far from it. A larger-than-life dreamer backed up with ninja training, powerful jutsus, and an obnoxious personality, he stood amongst the few who could possibly be the future Hokage of Kanoha.

Many feared this decision, for her, Uzumaki Naruto, held the very powerful Kyuubi no Youko, a powerful kitsune that almost destroyed Kanoha had it not been for Naruto's very own father who sealed the beast away in his own son. This was a great sacrifice for father and son. Father died and son had to live with being hated and feared amongst those whom he protected.

It was because of the Kyuubi no Youko that Naruto was able to hear the soft voice. The kitsune's chakra had not only made him stronger than most in his class, but had also heightened his unnaturally keen senses.

He wanted to call out but he felt moved to hear the actual words, to see the person singing.

Looking around, Naruto found that the voice was coming from over a wall to his left. It was a very large and very long wall. Luckily for the Genin, he was well trained in such a skill as climbing over such a steep and smooth wall.

He quickly clambered over and found himself in a massive garden. It was beautiful with all of the green. No flowers had yet bloomed but here and there were splashes of color from painted rocks.

"Uzumaki, what are you doing here?" a cool voice asked him. Naruto stiffened. So much for being future Hokage. He could not even simply sneak into someone's estate to see the siren who sang to him.

The blond turned and found Hyuuga Neji, the genius branch member of the Hyuuga clan and active protector to his younger cousin Hyuuga Hinata.

"H-hi, Neji-san!" Naruto said cheerfully.

"You never answered my question, Uzumaki. I could have the guards on you in seconds. So tell me, what are you doing here?"

"Uh, well, I heard someone singing. It sounded like it was coming over that wall," he pointed to said wall, "and I wanted to see who it was."

"No one in the Hyuuga family sings, Uzumaki."

"You sure? I could have sworn..."

Naruto closed his eyes and listened intently. Neji sighed.

"Uzumaki, I am going to have to ask you to—"

"There!" Naruto interrupted, startling the Hyuuga.

"The laundry room? Who would be singing in the laundry room?" Neji was now curious. He, too, listened to the voice. It was quite pretty but quiet.

The two tip-toed their way over to the slightly open window and peeked in. Both gasped when they saw the person with the soft voice. There, folding her laundry like the good girl she was, was Hinata.

A blush crept onto the blond's face when he saw what she was folding, a lacy, orange pair of undergarments. She placed them over a brassiere that matched.

_**I have faltered  
I have stumbled  
I have found my feet again  
I've been angry  
I've been shaken  
Found a new place to begin  
My persistence to make a difference  
Has led me safe into your hands  
In this life  
In this life**_

HER VOICE WAS DEEPER than what it should have been for the timid Hyuuga, but it was light and airy in the same way it always was. This created an interesting and beautiful sounding mix that caused Naruto to keep his eyes on her. Neji was just as startled, if not more, that his cousin had such a lovely voice. Never before had he heard her sing.

'Must have gotten it from her mother's side,' the brunet thought.

The words flowed through her pink lips with the grace of a geisha. She did not stumble or falter over the words, like she would have done if she knew someone was listening, especially the Uzumaki blond. Hell, she even reverberated her voice! She most _definitely_ would not have done that is she had found the two watching and listening to her.

_**You give me love  
**__**You give me light  
Show me everything that's been happening  
I've opened up my eyes  
I'm following  
Three steps fight an honest fight  
Two hearts that can start a fire  
One love is all I need  
In this life**_

SUCH A SIREN!

Naruto had never heard anyone sing so wonderfully before. Sure, he had hear Haruno Sakura and Jiraiya sing before but neither compared to Hyuuga Hinata. Sakura had a more mediocre voice, like that Hannah Mon-whatever her name was. And Jiraiya had a deep, throaty voice that was pleasant to listen to, but even he did not compare with the dark-haired beauty before him folding her laundry.

Her periwinkle eyes danced as she sang. The dim light in the room and the blinding sun outside cast small drops of light into those pretty eyes.

Naruto blinked.

'Pretty eyes? Where had that come from?' he thought.

He studied Hinata, as if trying to take her in for the first time. Her body was hidden from view from her over-sized jacket she always wore. Her legs were slim but muscular from all of the training she had received. Her blue-black hair fell in tempting sheets down her back, kissing her normally pale cheeks that were flushed from singing so freely. Her hands small and slim, delicate in their own way but worn and scarred from training and missions. And her lashes! They were longer than any lashes Naruto had ever laid eyes upon.

Yes, those long-lashed periwinkle eyes were indeed pretty, as was the rest of her, Naruto decided. And she was a wonderful singer who could fold laundry, cook, defend herself, and keep secrets. Hyuuga Hinata was indeed a wonderful person with amazing talents.

_**I was put here for a reason  
I was born into this world  
And I'm living and I'm believing  
That I was meant to be your girl  
In this life**_

NEJI FROWNED AT HIS cousin. How could she hide such a wonderful talent from the rest of her family? Did she not think that he or Hanabi would not care to know how beautiful her voice was?

'Speaking of Hanabi-sama,' Neji thought, 'she will be furious she was not around to hear Hinata-sama sing.'

Sadly, the Hyuuga was formal with his cousins even in his thoughts. He needed to get out more.

_**You give me love  
You give me light  
Show me everything that's been happening  
I've opened up my eyes  
I'm following  
Three steps fight an honest fight  
Two hearts that can start a fire  
One love is all I need  
In this life**_

AS THE SONG ENDED on the radio, Hinata could not help but feel as if she was being watched. Slowly she turned and looked at the stuck window. No one. Neji and Naruto both had gotten over the shock and enough sense to duck.

The girl shrugged and continued folding. Damn she had a lot of clothes.

'I do not even think I wore this last month!' she thought, holding up a white t-shirt with writing on it. It had been Inuzuka Kiba's idea. Each member, including their sensei, had gotten a shirt when they were first declared Team Kuranai.

Kiba himself had written something incoherent on everyone's shirts. Aburame Shino had written a haiku about a butterfly on the shirt (he had written something about watching out for bed bugs on Kiba's, just as a joke). Yuuhi Kurenai had written words of encouragement and love.

'I think I will wear this tomorrow when I go see Kurenai-sensei.' Hinata thought, but then frowned. 'She is not my sensei anymore, we are now equals. I will think of her as one, though. She does deserve the respect.'

Smiling, she folded it and placed it at the top of her over shirts pile.

NARUTO CONTINUED TO WATCH Hinata as Neji slunk away. The brunet needed to tell his youngest cousin what he found out about her sister.

The blond crouched there for twenty more minutes before a Hyuuga guard spotted him and called out.

"Hey, you! What are you doing here?"

Cursing, Naruto bolted into the laundry room, startling the timid Hyuuga.

"Naruto-kun, what—" she tried to ask but was cut off by her long-time crush.

"Hinata, want to come with me to Ichiraku Ramen Bar? Great! Come on!"

He pulled her from the room, leaving her laundry and her few words of pretest behind.

"By the way Hinata," Naruto said, "you should sing a little louder. You have a great voice, did you know that?"

Hinata would have stopped and demanded to know why Naruto had been spying on her and listening to her sing, but her legs did not agree. And apparently her body did not either, for it shut down.

"Crap!" the blond cried when he realized the Hyuuga had fainted. He scooped her up and escaped from the Hyuuga estate.

Neji was going to kill him when he finally returned Hinata to her family.

* * *

**Eh, not exactly what I wanted but what you want and what you get are two different things.**

**I tried to add more line breaks in there but computer was not agreeing with me, so I capitalized the beginnings of where the line breaks were supposed to be.**

**By the way folks, blonde is feminine and blond is masculine (just as brunette is feminine and brunet is masculine). So no screeching at me because I can't spell, because I can! A lot of people just don't know the difference. If anything, I should be screeching at you folks who don't know what words are masculine and what words are feminine... but I'm nice and lazy so you guys are lucky.**

**Sasuke says: REVIEW!**


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